Clarinet Wisdom from David Pino book
Tonguing
The type of multiple tonguing used by brass and flute players who have no mouthpiece or reed in their mouths is not adequate on clarinet in the long run. All tonguing strokes on the clarinet-whether single, double, or triple-must be done on the reed itself.
What Clarinetist Needs
Why does anybody want to play clarinet in the first place? Why play an instrument at all, and why the clarinet in particular?
The Clarinet
You should love music-making in general. And the clarinet in general, and the clarinet in particular. That love is the first requirement.
A variety of clarinet swabs is available in music stores. A supply of cork grease is needed in order to properly lubricate the cork-covered tenon joints of the clarinet. A small bottle of key oil is useful for occasional application to the key mechanism, at the various points where moving parts meer. Just like a fine piece of furniture, the wooden bore of the clarinet needs to be taken care of, and for this you need some bore oil.
In order to replace any screws that may be working their way out of your key mechanism, you should have a special repairman’s screwdriver. The screwdriver is especially useful if it has a small but very long blade. You must have a music stand or a clarinet stand.
The mouthpiece is the clarinetist’s most important object. Allowing excessive moisture to gather in the bore of your clarinet is bad for both the wood in the instrument itself and for the pads covering the tone-holes. Clarinet mouthpieces have been made from many different materials such as wood, metal, crystal, plastic, or hard rubber. Wood, metal, and plastic are not recommended since each possesses at least one fatal flaw such as lack of durability or poor tone quality. Many fine clarinetists advocate crystal, or glass mouthpieces. I prefer mouthpieces that have been bored from hard rod rubber. Hard rubber seems to me to possess more advantages and fewer drawbacks than the other materials do.
Care of the Mouthpiece
The tip-rail of any mouthpiece is extremely delicate, and any denting or nicking will probably prove fatal to the proper performance of the mouthpiece. When storing the mouthpiece after a playing session, remove the reed and dry the mouthpiece inside and out. You should wash the mouthpiece with mild soap and lukewarm water once a week or so, greasing the cork first to protect it from the cleaning agents.
The Ligature
The placement and amount of ligature pressure on the reed, therefore can make or break this aspect of clarinet playing. In simplest terms, we need to remember that the reed vibrations are what cause the sound. Plastic screw-type ligatures, such as those are a great improvement over nearly all of the metal ones. The ligature should lightly but evenly touch the bark of the reed, it should be made of some sort of elastic fabric band. Velcro, a strap of which can be easily wrapped around a mouthpiece and reed. The humble shoestring occurred to me. I then took the loose end, which still had its little plastic point on it, and wedged that point in between a couple of my earlier wrappings. Eureka! I have never used another ligature in my regular playing since. It is a good safety precaution to take your mouthpiece, with or without reed, with you. If the shoestring sound to you like a crazy idea, I only ask that you try it before writing me off as a crank.
The Clarinet Itself and Barrel Joints
The clarinet is a woodwind instrument approx. 26in long in its usual B-flat version; the A clarinet is about 1 ½ in longer. The sound that we hear coming from a clarinet is actually caused by the vibrating air column inside the instrument; it is not the sound of the reed vibrating. The vibrating reed is only the sound generator; it causes the air column to vibrate audibly.
One particular trouble spot to look for in a clarinet’s tuning is in the lowest notes; these notes, at the bottom of the chalumeau register, tend to be quite sharp. Often players are tempted to buy a clarinet equipped with “extra keys, ‘if only for the sake of novelty. This is usually a mistake. The normal Boehm-system clarinet, with its seventeen keys and six rings, possesses all the keys that are really needed. The overwhelming majority of professional clarinetists prefer this key system. The more keys that are added to a woodwind instrument the more that instrument becomes a mechanical nightmare. From the early 1900s onward, three manufacturers of clarinets have found favor with most American clarinetists, both students and professionals. These three manufacturers are Buffet, Selmer, and Leblanc.
Care of the Clarinet
Two myths about clarinet care: First, clarinet keys do not have to be polished. Do not try to maintain a high, shiny gloss on the finish of your clarinet keys by polishing them with a chemically treated cloth! The dried chemicals in such a cloth become powdery when the cloth is briskly rubbed on the keys. This powder flakes off the cloth and falls into (or on) the pads, the tone-holes, and finally into the bore itself. Do not attempt anything in the way of mechanical repair on your clarinet. Even a slightly unseated pad installed by the inexperienced can drastically alter the playing qualities of a clarinet, causing it to “squeak” and to play with entirely too much resistance. The adjustment of the bridge key between the upper and the lower joints is especially foolhardy for the amateur to undertake. A fine wooden clarinet is really nothing more than a mechanized piece of wood. It must not be allowed to dry out completely or it will crack and leak. To avoid drying and cracking, the bore of the clarinet must be occasionally oiled. Once a year should probably do it. Keep an optimum amount of “cork grease” on the cork tenons between the various sections of the clarinet. Put an occasional drop of key oil on all working parts of the mechanism. Remember that key oil is a completely different substance from bore oil.
